Champs To Meet At Peninsula Bee

Forty-five students representing area public, private, parochial and home schools will compete. The contestants are fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who have survived preliminary spell-downs.

Sources for words used in the bee will be Webster's Third New International Dictionary, copyright 1993, and its addenda section.

Judges will be Margaret Lee, assistant professor of English at Hampton University, and Anne Dowd, professor of English at Thomas Nelson Community College. Jay Paul, professor of English at Christopher Newport University, will serve as bee pronouncer.

The winner of the local competition will travel to Washington, D.C., May 29-June 3 to compete in the national Spelling Bee. The winner will receive The New Encyclopaedia Britannica in his or her choice of a 32-volume set or the CD-ROM version; a copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, copyright 1993; and an engraved plaque. Second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-place finalists will receive engraved plaques and reference materials.

The spelling bee is sponsored for the 18th year by the Daily Press. Local contestants are: